Post by Wolfezth Deraine on Jul 3, 2009 21:12:57 GMT -5
Wolfezth and Alaina were in the light blue, old Toyota pickup truck. Despite protests, Alaina decided NOT to let Wolfezth drive; fearing his 70mph-on-a-city-road driving might SOMEHOW get them into a car crash. It was announced earlier that the war games had been canceled due to critical news that they would be briefed on when they got there... Via mass phone call conference. The squads were scattered across town, but were converging on the wide areas near the warehouses, a familiar terrain that had been untouched by the monsters so far they had fought. They were told by Tyler Mosso, the unofficial leader of all squads that they needed to be combat-ready and thus everyone would be dressed in full battle-armor for the occasion in case of an attack and for whatever the information was. There was a light fog, which would make seeing things a little bit hard.
"Probably finally deciding to burn Camp Half-Blood to the ground." Wolfezth commented as Alaina drove. They were both dressed in celestial bronze plate mail, the full set. Both had their weapons between their legs, Alaina with her compound bow and her short sword; and Wolfezth with his bastard sword, twin sabres, and assassin's blade moved to the bottom of the bastard sword sheath due to his plate mail not having cuffs, a rather odd place to put it. But his reasoning behind it is that no one would expect a SECOND blade in a sword sheath.
"Unlikely; 'cause their management is so damn stupid and the fact that they haven't gone after us with the ferocity the Minor Gods' faction has recently. We're probably going after THEM; 'cause those assholes have been a pain in our ass since day one pretty much. The reason we're wearing battle armor is probably the off chance the Camp over there catches wind of this and decides to attack."
"Gives us an excuse to kill 'em off early, but hell... We need the distraction."
"What do you mean?"
"The Minor Gods' army is stronger and bigger than ours, and if they had free reign they'd just surround and conquer our squads one by one. Camp, whether we like it or not kind of safeguards us in a way. The Minor Gods' army is mostly focused on killing THEM instead of us so they can have more control. They can't go full-out because the gods would absolutely beat the living hell out of them, while we're too insignificant for them to care much. Therein lies our one and only real advantage here; no one gives a fuck about us. We've been steadily building strength for the past decade or so... They will BEGIN to care once we do something big though, so we got to make our first and most effective attack; effective due to the element of surprise the most deadly it can be. There HAS to be a way to kill the gods, and the easiest persons to squeeze that information from would be the weakest and most distant of gods... Them."
"Huh, never thought about it that way; but they're still GODS though."
"Pffffffft! If a bunch of gods can gang up on a Titan to send him to Tartarus; surely a bunch of demigods can do the same to a god! Like I said, there has to be SOMETHING that could damage and eventually kill a god, and once we obtain that information we can do a LOT more damage."
"If we live that long, Wolf. We sure as hell ain't no heroes!" Alaina said with a chuckle.
Wolfezth grinned at that as well for a moment, then quoted the City Of Heroes song; "Well, they say a hero can save us... But we're not gonna stand here and wait; now are we?"
"Guess not." Alaina said, seeing the warehouses as she turned around a corner going... Gasp; speed limit!
There was a mill of people, so both figured they were either the last or one of the last to arrive. Alaina pulled up in the middle of the street in front of the warehouse, it being an unused old road no one would give a damn. She then strapped on her shortsword and slung her compound bow on her back and got out. Wolfezth grabbed his blades and set the sabres in their customary places on each hip and his bastard sword on his back and got out as well. In hindsight he figured it'd be easier to do it in reverse order due to the stiffness of the seat and the small area he had to work with, but it was too late by the time he realized that. Both shut their doors behind them and started toward the mill of people. The fog made it sort of hard to make out individuals, so they just kind of went in and waited for the briefing to start.
A familiar face popped out of the crowd to meet them, the guy who recruited Wolfezth... Blake Reed. You couldn't see his shiny black hair from under his helmet, but Wolfezth remembered it as probably his most distinguishing feature. He had gotten more tan since the last time he had saw him, but that was probably from more sun than he was used to there in Kansas.
"Heyo, Wolf; Alaina! How've you all been doin'? Glad to find y'all!" He said in a very friendly tone.
"Pretty damn good, dawg! You know what's been goin' down?" Wolfezth replied easily and quickly before Alaina could respond.
"No, but I sure as hell would like to know! No one here seems to know, but I'm sure that there's a good reason. Mosso doesn't pull this shit for nothing."
"Yeah, I've noticed. What squads are we missing?" Alaina interrupted the conversation before it shifted to the inappropriate topics that inevitably came up when Blake and Wolf started talking.
"None, Lost Cause was the last one! The briefing should begin soon, actually." Blake said.
Wolfezth opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a voice obviously amplified by a microphone calling out to the group.
"Glad you could make it, all of you! Now, I'm sure you'd like to know why I called you all here today; and we've got VERY exciting news for you today. Courtesy of the Rancid Twilight squad headed by Hunter Gregory and Dustin Lane; we now have almost ascertained the location of the Minor Gods' base of operations."
The voice paused, and Wolf nor Alaina could see the person speaking, but both knew it was Tyler Mosso speaking from the front... While they were in the back of the crowd. There was a fair amount of cheering to this, and Tyler waited until it died down before continuing.
"Aptly located around the general area of the City of Sin; Las Vegas Nevada... We have picked up from dead agents that that's where most of the orders originate from. A special thanks to Phoenix Squad for picking up most of those phones and orders from their agents!"
He again paused, and Blake looked smug for a few seconds; as he was the leader of Phoenix Squad. He had a right to feel good about it due to his hard work. There was also a fair amount of cheering, and Wolf joined in this time; personally knowing most Phoenix Squad pretty damn well. Once the cheering died down, Tyler continued his briefing.
"So... Tonight we will ride the winds toward Las Vegas; bringing as many supplies as we can get our hands on. Keep in mind that we're going to a DESERT, so bring as much water as possible. Prep as much as possible for the upcoming mission, because we might be able to strike a VERY powerful blow to them; and show 'em that what goes around... Comes around."
There was more cheering to that, until someone yelled; "What the hell is that?"
That made everyone look around; the fog was denser now... And once there was silence when a hail of arrows befell the crowd. Most glanced off of armor or missed, but a few fell to it. All raised their shields of they had them, and within seconds a phalanx of about twelve deep and rows of soldiers with spears outstretched; in full battle gear.
There was no screaming orders, there was only the drawing of weapons. Wolfezth drew his bastard sword and held out his hand toward the crowd for a shield, which was given to him by someone; though who he didn't know since he didn't look. It was a kite shield, which was more than enough protection for him. No one rushed in to take charge right away due to shock, so Wolfezth did.
"Blake and all swordsman with shields, you come with me and attack their phalanx. Alaina; you take all the archers and the speediest swordsman without shields and flank them from the rear; so we can kick their ass from both sides. Pass it on as you go; let's strike a blow NOW to kick things off." He ordered in a low but powerful and serious voice.
Alaina nodded and ran off, bow in hand while Blake motioned for the people nearby to follow orders with a nod toward them. Wolfezth adjusted his shield so he had a good grip on it with his left hand while making sure his grip was strong on his bastard sword with his right. His sabres lie untouched on his hips as he started to advance slowly, waiting for word to pass throughout the crowd. It did, and more and more foot soldiers started to follow him, and he didn't look back for fear of the enemy going full out while he hesitated. There was no negotiation, it was just full-out warfare as soon as it started. The enemy was charging toward them, but they still had about thirty seconds.
"Form phalanx! Twelve deep; with support between! Shoulder to shoulder, break those spears with your shields!" Wolfezth said, and the soldiers immediately obeyed, with Wolfezth shoulder to shoulder with Vincent and Blake as the enemy was only seconds away from converging on them. "Hold! Ready for impact!" Wolfezth yelled as the enemy line converged on his own. He readied his shield just in time for it to deflect a thrusted spear, and Wolfezth shoved it into the spear for added impact; hoping to chip or break it. It was so sudden the wood of the spear couldn't hold, and it snapped. He heard the screams of a few that weren't so lucky; but from which side he couldn't tell, and Wolfezth slashed with his bastard sword; only to be met with the shield of his opponent.
His opponent had gotten out a longsword, and Wolfezth quickly had to block a strike from that with his kite shield, and thought of a tactic. He waited until his enemy struck again, and blocked it with his bastard sword while Blake and Vincent were locked in combat with their respective opponents. He stepped into the strike, forcing his opponent to step backwards and step into the person behind him; and it made him lose some of his balance and give Wolfezth the edge he needed to unlock their swords and slash at his enemy's chest, and then slashing through his throat.
As soon as his body fell, another came to take his place; fresh and ready to kill. Wolfezth stepped back, because if he took a few more steps forward he'd die due to being surrounding by the standbys of the enemy phalanx. Just then, there was an incoherent yell from the enemy ranks, and all the standbys just charged into the fray; forcing Wolfezth's phalanx backwards due to the chaos it caused as they tried to surround and beat down on it at the same time. Wolfezth himself had to put up his kite shield quickly due to the influx of two more people stabbing in between their own men at him with spears. This was a common tactic, so his Phalanx recovered as they moved to help out comrades so they could fight on a more even playing field. The standbys behind Wolfezth surged in and stabbed at one of the enemies in front of him that was about ready to slash at his legs as he blocked a high blow with his shield; a rare mistake as he blocked a mid-strike with his bastard sword.
Just then, there was a whistling in the wind and every single member of Wolfezth's phalanx quickly got their shields in a defensive position and kneeled down slightly and raising their shields accordingly. They didn't know whether the fire was from the enemy or from their own forces, but they didn't want to get sniped either way. The enemy forces battered on the shields and moved to surround the supposedly helpless phalanx... But the arrows went straight into their backs. The ones that missed ricocheted off of Wolfezth's phalanx soldier's shields harmlessly. This caused confusion in the enemy ranks, and some of them turned backwards to face the new threat; and Wolfezth yelled; "Now!" and his phalanx got up as one to charge into the enemy while they were in disarray while the arrows still kept coming in from behind them. The enemies that turned around quickly got cut down, and those that stayed to fight those in the phalanx were plagued by arrows inevitably protruding from their backs.
As the enemy ranks thinned, Wolf's phalanx began driving THEM backward. Then the arrows stopped suddenly, and the enemy phalanx surged once more at Wolf's phalanx; now seemingly having almost equal numbers in each. Wolfezth 'caught' an enemy soldier's longsword as he tried to strike at him, and by twisting his hand very swiftly disarmed his opponent and quickly finished him off with a stab through the throat. Seconds later, as the body finished falling and the next standby went to join the fray, the archers; led by Alaina surged from behind enemy lines with their own swords and melee weapons to finish off the enemy phalanx. Caught in between two rows of enemies, the enemy phalanx was not nearly the threat it was before, and Wolfezth yelled; "Give quarter if possible!"
Some of the enemy phalanx at the edges tried to run, but were quickly caught by the either the tackles of a foot soldier or the arrows of an archer. In fact, one of the soldiers of the enemy phalanx managed to maneuver very swiftly and skillfully with their sword past Wolfezth and began to bolt. "Hold lanes, I'ma get that bastard!" he yelled as he turned tail and began to chase after the soldier who outmaneuvered him. Wolfezth was faster, and began to catch up to the soldier as he turned around; and Wolfezth realized his opponent had similar weaponry to him, having a viking-style shield and a bastard sword.
"Wanna fight without the shields, panzy?" A... Female voice challenged Wolfezth.
"Sure, kiddo. You just signed your own death warrant; though." Wolfezth said, and both dropped their shields in sync. Wolfezth's steel gray eyes stared down his opponent's brown eyes.
"If you say so, but I do believe you just signed your own." She replied, and charged at him.
Wolfezth blocked the first strike, which was ment for a slash to his throat; but his opponent was fast with the sword. He quickly disengaged his sword with his opponent's and did an extremely quick feint from the left side; feinting to his opponent's left leg before really striking at the side of her helmet with a sweeping slash. To his surprise his strike was blocked; and his opponent's blade nearly caught his as she twisted her blade in an effort to disarm him. Wolfezth pulled his blade out in the nick of time, and grinned as he backed out of the dangerous close-quarters with a step back.
"Not bad." Wolfezth commented, and then charged back in with a lightning-fast sweep to his opponent's chest; coming in from the right side. He hoped that his strike's power would overpower his opponent's style and net him a solid hit if not a kill... But he was wrong. His opponent just quickly jumped back from the strike, and while Wolfezth was recovering charged in with a flurry of blows. Wolfezth barely blocked the first one, and had an exceptionally hard time blocking the rest of the six swift attacks that were more wounding blows than killing blows; designed to wear him down... And it sure as hell was working.
Wolfezth was forced to back away several steps, and said; "Looks like I got to revert to what I do best..." and dropped his bastard sword; and the instant he did his opponent charged. He drew his two sabres just in time to block the bastard sword with both of them.
"Not bad for a rebel." Wolfezth's opponent commented as she herself backed up this time and tried to assess how to combat two swords at once.
Wolfezth sure as hell didn't give her the chance, charging with his own flurry of attacks; using feints very often to confuse his opponent. The first of which was a stab to the stomach with his left sabre and a feint slash to the left with a sweep to the right with his right sabre. His opponent caught wind of the feint at the last second and sweeped his own blade to deter the stab and finished by locking blades with the sweep.
"It's...Not...Over...Yet." Wolfezth's opponent panted as she did a sweep of her own on Wolfezth's sabres even before the momentum of Wolfezth's sweep was completely evaporated. Wolfezth quickly maneuvered both sabres to stop the blow, and for the first time realized how much of a tax the fight; especially this one had on his energy. He just now realized how hard he was breathing; his lungs working to help his body maintain his normal speed as long as it could.
After that confrontation that left both of their arms jarred from the massive impacts, they both took a step back and circled around each other for a few moments; determining the best way to strike. From the corner of his eye as they circled each other he could see the battle ending in their favor; as he knew it would. The main combat stage was over, and prisoners were being tied up. Some of the soldiers were looking onto the fight, but none lifted a finger to interfere; because they knew what kind of honor Wolfezth had when fighting... And that Wolf had no compunction of seriously injuring or pulling rank on anyone who interfered in a really good fight... And this was a really good fight that he could very well lose.
Seeing his distraction, his opponent charged, using a slash toward Wolfezth's throat as her attack. Wolfezth blocked, being pushed back a step by the force of the blow, and an idea popped in his head. He twirled his sabres into a dual slash at both of his opponent's shoulders, and she blocked as he knew she would; a high block. Before the impact was over, Wolfezth took a chance and let go of his sabres as he dove down in a baseball slide between his opponent's legs and pulled her down with the momentum from the slide. She fell face-first with a grunt, and Wolfezth wasted no time mounting on her back and using both hands to wrench the bastard sword out of his dazed enemy's right hand. It took a mighty pull, but he managed it as his dazed opponent groaned from the pain of her helmet smashing into the ground into her face.
And at that moment the intense pain in both of his arms and the tiredness of his legs hit him, but he didn't let it bother him more than a little bit; using his willpower to halt the advance of the lethargy before he could afford it.
There were footsteps toward him, and Wolfezth looked up to see Blake tossing him some rope; which he grabbed and tied up his now-prisoner's hands behind her back.
"Damn, was that their leader?" Blake asked, and Wolfezth shrugged.
"Dunno, but if we'd've been any less tired that baseball slide wouldn't've worked and I'd be pretty damn injured or dead right now; 'cause that was the best swordsmanship I've seen in a while. Any idea who they came from, by the way?" he replied to Blake in a reflective tone.
"Probably not Camp with that phalanx and coordination, but we outmaneuvered them. They had superior numbers, and your plan saved our asses. Mosso was on the archer's back attack and was impressed with it all. They had about two thirds more soldiers than we did, and we still whooped their asses."
"How many prisoners?"
"About twenty."
"How many dead for us?"
"About five with ten more wounded; but none fatally or life-threatening."
"Not as bad as I thought it'd be; good. Sadly we'll have to get the funeral pyres out; so get that ready."
"Okay, but you need to get some rest; dude. You look like shit right now."
"Pfft! I didn't have to run behind enemy lines and THEN get into position and THEN charge AGAIN into the back of the enemy line in ADDITION to the fighting - so I don't wanna hear that bullshit."
"Fine, fine... I'll get it ready."
"I'll make sure this one doesn't move until someone comes along to collect the prisoners and find out where to put 'em. And if Micheal suggests in his bedroom please beat him upside the head for me." Wolfezth said, tired.
"Will do, mate!" Blake saluted, and then walked off to follow orders.
"Probably finally deciding to burn Camp Half-Blood to the ground." Wolfezth commented as Alaina drove. They were both dressed in celestial bronze plate mail, the full set. Both had their weapons between their legs, Alaina with her compound bow and her short sword; and Wolfezth with his bastard sword, twin sabres, and assassin's blade moved to the bottom of the bastard sword sheath due to his plate mail not having cuffs, a rather odd place to put it. But his reasoning behind it is that no one would expect a SECOND blade in a sword sheath.
"Unlikely; 'cause their management is so damn stupid and the fact that they haven't gone after us with the ferocity the Minor Gods' faction has recently. We're probably going after THEM; 'cause those assholes have been a pain in our ass since day one pretty much. The reason we're wearing battle armor is probably the off chance the Camp over there catches wind of this and decides to attack."
"Gives us an excuse to kill 'em off early, but hell... We need the distraction."
"What do you mean?"
"The Minor Gods' army is stronger and bigger than ours, and if they had free reign they'd just surround and conquer our squads one by one. Camp, whether we like it or not kind of safeguards us in a way. The Minor Gods' army is mostly focused on killing THEM instead of us so they can have more control. They can't go full-out because the gods would absolutely beat the living hell out of them, while we're too insignificant for them to care much. Therein lies our one and only real advantage here; no one gives a fuck about us. We've been steadily building strength for the past decade or so... They will BEGIN to care once we do something big though, so we got to make our first and most effective attack; effective due to the element of surprise the most deadly it can be. There HAS to be a way to kill the gods, and the easiest persons to squeeze that information from would be the weakest and most distant of gods... Them."
"Huh, never thought about it that way; but they're still GODS though."
"Pffffffft! If a bunch of gods can gang up on a Titan to send him to Tartarus; surely a bunch of demigods can do the same to a god! Like I said, there has to be SOMETHING that could damage and eventually kill a god, and once we obtain that information we can do a LOT more damage."
"If we live that long, Wolf. We sure as hell ain't no heroes!" Alaina said with a chuckle.
Wolfezth grinned at that as well for a moment, then quoted the City Of Heroes song; "Well, they say a hero can save us... But we're not gonna stand here and wait; now are we?"
"Guess not." Alaina said, seeing the warehouses as she turned around a corner going... Gasp; speed limit!
There was a mill of people, so both figured they were either the last or one of the last to arrive. Alaina pulled up in the middle of the street in front of the warehouse, it being an unused old road no one would give a damn. She then strapped on her shortsword and slung her compound bow on her back and got out. Wolfezth grabbed his blades and set the sabres in their customary places on each hip and his bastard sword on his back and got out as well. In hindsight he figured it'd be easier to do it in reverse order due to the stiffness of the seat and the small area he had to work with, but it was too late by the time he realized that. Both shut their doors behind them and started toward the mill of people. The fog made it sort of hard to make out individuals, so they just kind of went in and waited for the briefing to start.
A familiar face popped out of the crowd to meet them, the guy who recruited Wolfezth... Blake Reed. You couldn't see his shiny black hair from under his helmet, but Wolfezth remembered it as probably his most distinguishing feature. He had gotten more tan since the last time he had saw him, but that was probably from more sun than he was used to there in Kansas.
"Heyo, Wolf; Alaina! How've you all been doin'? Glad to find y'all!" He said in a very friendly tone.
"Pretty damn good, dawg! You know what's been goin' down?" Wolfezth replied easily and quickly before Alaina could respond.
"No, but I sure as hell would like to know! No one here seems to know, but I'm sure that there's a good reason. Mosso doesn't pull this shit for nothing."
"Yeah, I've noticed. What squads are we missing?" Alaina interrupted the conversation before it shifted to the inappropriate topics that inevitably came up when Blake and Wolf started talking.
"None, Lost Cause was the last one! The briefing should begin soon, actually." Blake said.
Wolfezth opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a voice obviously amplified by a microphone calling out to the group.
"Glad you could make it, all of you! Now, I'm sure you'd like to know why I called you all here today; and we've got VERY exciting news for you today. Courtesy of the Rancid Twilight squad headed by Hunter Gregory and Dustin Lane; we now have almost ascertained the location of the Minor Gods' base of operations."
The voice paused, and Wolf nor Alaina could see the person speaking, but both knew it was Tyler Mosso speaking from the front... While they were in the back of the crowd. There was a fair amount of cheering to this, and Tyler waited until it died down before continuing.
"Aptly located around the general area of the City of Sin; Las Vegas Nevada... We have picked up from dead agents that that's where most of the orders originate from. A special thanks to Phoenix Squad for picking up most of those phones and orders from their agents!"
He again paused, and Blake looked smug for a few seconds; as he was the leader of Phoenix Squad. He had a right to feel good about it due to his hard work. There was also a fair amount of cheering, and Wolf joined in this time; personally knowing most Phoenix Squad pretty damn well. Once the cheering died down, Tyler continued his briefing.
"So... Tonight we will ride the winds toward Las Vegas; bringing as many supplies as we can get our hands on. Keep in mind that we're going to a DESERT, so bring as much water as possible. Prep as much as possible for the upcoming mission, because we might be able to strike a VERY powerful blow to them; and show 'em that what goes around... Comes around."
There was more cheering to that, until someone yelled; "What the hell is that?"
That made everyone look around; the fog was denser now... And once there was silence when a hail of arrows befell the crowd. Most glanced off of armor or missed, but a few fell to it. All raised their shields of they had them, and within seconds a phalanx of about twelve deep and rows of soldiers with spears outstretched; in full battle gear.
There was no screaming orders, there was only the drawing of weapons. Wolfezth drew his bastard sword and held out his hand toward the crowd for a shield, which was given to him by someone; though who he didn't know since he didn't look. It was a kite shield, which was more than enough protection for him. No one rushed in to take charge right away due to shock, so Wolfezth did.
"Blake and all swordsman with shields, you come with me and attack their phalanx. Alaina; you take all the archers and the speediest swordsman without shields and flank them from the rear; so we can kick their ass from both sides. Pass it on as you go; let's strike a blow NOW to kick things off." He ordered in a low but powerful and serious voice.
Alaina nodded and ran off, bow in hand while Blake motioned for the people nearby to follow orders with a nod toward them. Wolfezth adjusted his shield so he had a good grip on it with his left hand while making sure his grip was strong on his bastard sword with his right. His sabres lie untouched on his hips as he started to advance slowly, waiting for word to pass throughout the crowd. It did, and more and more foot soldiers started to follow him, and he didn't look back for fear of the enemy going full out while he hesitated. There was no negotiation, it was just full-out warfare as soon as it started. The enemy was charging toward them, but they still had about thirty seconds.
"Form phalanx! Twelve deep; with support between! Shoulder to shoulder, break those spears with your shields!" Wolfezth said, and the soldiers immediately obeyed, with Wolfezth shoulder to shoulder with Vincent and Blake as the enemy was only seconds away from converging on them. "Hold! Ready for impact!" Wolfezth yelled as the enemy line converged on his own. He readied his shield just in time for it to deflect a thrusted spear, and Wolfezth shoved it into the spear for added impact; hoping to chip or break it. It was so sudden the wood of the spear couldn't hold, and it snapped. He heard the screams of a few that weren't so lucky; but from which side he couldn't tell, and Wolfezth slashed with his bastard sword; only to be met with the shield of his opponent.
His opponent had gotten out a longsword, and Wolfezth quickly had to block a strike from that with his kite shield, and thought of a tactic. He waited until his enemy struck again, and blocked it with his bastard sword while Blake and Vincent were locked in combat with their respective opponents. He stepped into the strike, forcing his opponent to step backwards and step into the person behind him; and it made him lose some of his balance and give Wolfezth the edge he needed to unlock their swords and slash at his enemy's chest, and then slashing through his throat.
As soon as his body fell, another came to take his place; fresh and ready to kill. Wolfezth stepped back, because if he took a few more steps forward he'd die due to being surrounding by the standbys of the enemy phalanx. Just then, there was an incoherent yell from the enemy ranks, and all the standbys just charged into the fray; forcing Wolfezth's phalanx backwards due to the chaos it caused as they tried to surround and beat down on it at the same time. Wolfezth himself had to put up his kite shield quickly due to the influx of two more people stabbing in between their own men at him with spears. This was a common tactic, so his Phalanx recovered as they moved to help out comrades so they could fight on a more even playing field. The standbys behind Wolfezth surged in and stabbed at one of the enemies in front of him that was about ready to slash at his legs as he blocked a high blow with his shield; a rare mistake as he blocked a mid-strike with his bastard sword.
Just then, there was a whistling in the wind and every single member of Wolfezth's phalanx quickly got their shields in a defensive position and kneeled down slightly and raising their shields accordingly. They didn't know whether the fire was from the enemy or from their own forces, but they didn't want to get sniped either way. The enemy forces battered on the shields and moved to surround the supposedly helpless phalanx... But the arrows went straight into their backs. The ones that missed ricocheted off of Wolfezth's phalanx soldier's shields harmlessly. This caused confusion in the enemy ranks, and some of them turned backwards to face the new threat; and Wolfezth yelled; "Now!" and his phalanx got up as one to charge into the enemy while they were in disarray while the arrows still kept coming in from behind them. The enemies that turned around quickly got cut down, and those that stayed to fight those in the phalanx were plagued by arrows inevitably protruding from their backs.
As the enemy ranks thinned, Wolf's phalanx began driving THEM backward. Then the arrows stopped suddenly, and the enemy phalanx surged once more at Wolf's phalanx; now seemingly having almost equal numbers in each. Wolfezth 'caught' an enemy soldier's longsword as he tried to strike at him, and by twisting his hand very swiftly disarmed his opponent and quickly finished him off with a stab through the throat. Seconds later, as the body finished falling and the next standby went to join the fray, the archers; led by Alaina surged from behind enemy lines with their own swords and melee weapons to finish off the enemy phalanx. Caught in between two rows of enemies, the enemy phalanx was not nearly the threat it was before, and Wolfezth yelled; "Give quarter if possible!"
Some of the enemy phalanx at the edges tried to run, but were quickly caught by the either the tackles of a foot soldier or the arrows of an archer. In fact, one of the soldiers of the enemy phalanx managed to maneuver very swiftly and skillfully with their sword past Wolfezth and began to bolt. "Hold lanes, I'ma get that bastard!" he yelled as he turned tail and began to chase after the soldier who outmaneuvered him. Wolfezth was faster, and began to catch up to the soldier as he turned around; and Wolfezth realized his opponent had similar weaponry to him, having a viking-style shield and a bastard sword.
"Wanna fight without the shields, panzy?" A... Female voice challenged Wolfezth.
"Sure, kiddo. You just signed your own death warrant; though." Wolfezth said, and both dropped their shields in sync. Wolfezth's steel gray eyes stared down his opponent's brown eyes.
"If you say so, but I do believe you just signed your own." She replied, and charged at him.
Wolfezth blocked the first strike, which was ment for a slash to his throat; but his opponent was fast with the sword. He quickly disengaged his sword with his opponent's and did an extremely quick feint from the left side; feinting to his opponent's left leg before really striking at the side of her helmet with a sweeping slash. To his surprise his strike was blocked; and his opponent's blade nearly caught his as she twisted her blade in an effort to disarm him. Wolfezth pulled his blade out in the nick of time, and grinned as he backed out of the dangerous close-quarters with a step back.
"Not bad." Wolfezth commented, and then charged back in with a lightning-fast sweep to his opponent's chest; coming in from the right side. He hoped that his strike's power would overpower his opponent's style and net him a solid hit if not a kill... But he was wrong. His opponent just quickly jumped back from the strike, and while Wolfezth was recovering charged in with a flurry of blows. Wolfezth barely blocked the first one, and had an exceptionally hard time blocking the rest of the six swift attacks that were more wounding blows than killing blows; designed to wear him down... And it sure as hell was working.
Wolfezth was forced to back away several steps, and said; "Looks like I got to revert to what I do best..." and dropped his bastard sword; and the instant he did his opponent charged. He drew his two sabres just in time to block the bastard sword with both of them.
"Not bad for a rebel." Wolfezth's opponent commented as she herself backed up this time and tried to assess how to combat two swords at once.
Wolfezth sure as hell didn't give her the chance, charging with his own flurry of attacks; using feints very often to confuse his opponent. The first of which was a stab to the stomach with his left sabre and a feint slash to the left with a sweep to the right with his right sabre. His opponent caught wind of the feint at the last second and sweeped his own blade to deter the stab and finished by locking blades with the sweep.
"It's...Not...Over...Yet." Wolfezth's opponent panted as she did a sweep of her own on Wolfezth's sabres even before the momentum of Wolfezth's sweep was completely evaporated. Wolfezth quickly maneuvered both sabres to stop the blow, and for the first time realized how much of a tax the fight; especially this one had on his energy. He just now realized how hard he was breathing; his lungs working to help his body maintain his normal speed as long as it could.
After that confrontation that left both of their arms jarred from the massive impacts, they both took a step back and circled around each other for a few moments; determining the best way to strike. From the corner of his eye as they circled each other he could see the battle ending in their favor; as he knew it would. The main combat stage was over, and prisoners were being tied up. Some of the soldiers were looking onto the fight, but none lifted a finger to interfere; because they knew what kind of honor Wolfezth had when fighting... And that Wolf had no compunction of seriously injuring or pulling rank on anyone who interfered in a really good fight... And this was a really good fight that he could very well lose.
Seeing his distraction, his opponent charged, using a slash toward Wolfezth's throat as her attack. Wolfezth blocked, being pushed back a step by the force of the blow, and an idea popped in his head. He twirled his sabres into a dual slash at both of his opponent's shoulders, and she blocked as he knew she would; a high block. Before the impact was over, Wolfezth took a chance and let go of his sabres as he dove down in a baseball slide between his opponent's legs and pulled her down with the momentum from the slide. She fell face-first with a grunt, and Wolfezth wasted no time mounting on her back and using both hands to wrench the bastard sword out of his dazed enemy's right hand. It took a mighty pull, but he managed it as his dazed opponent groaned from the pain of her helmet smashing into the ground into her face.
And at that moment the intense pain in both of his arms and the tiredness of his legs hit him, but he didn't let it bother him more than a little bit; using his willpower to halt the advance of the lethargy before he could afford it.
There were footsteps toward him, and Wolfezth looked up to see Blake tossing him some rope; which he grabbed and tied up his now-prisoner's hands behind her back.
"Damn, was that their leader?" Blake asked, and Wolfezth shrugged.
"Dunno, but if we'd've been any less tired that baseball slide wouldn't've worked and I'd be pretty damn injured or dead right now; 'cause that was the best swordsmanship I've seen in a while. Any idea who they came from, by the way?" he replied to Blake in a reflective tone.
"Probably not Camp with that phalanx and coordination, but we outmaneuvered them. They had superior numbers, and your plan saved our asses. Mosso was on the archer's back attack and was impressed with it all. They had about two thirds more soldiers than we did, and we still whooped their asses."
"How many prisoners?"
"About twenty."
"How many dead for us?"
"About five with ten more wounded; but none fatally or life-threatening."
"Not as bad as I thought it'd be; good. Sadly we'll have to get the funeral pyres out; so get that ready."
"Okay, but you need to get some rest; dude. You look like shit right now."
"Pfft! I didn't have to run behind enemy lines and THEN get into position and THEN charge AGAIN into the back of the enemy line in ADDITION to the fighting - so I don't wanna hear that bullshit."
"Fine, fine... I'll get it ready."
"I'll make sure this one doesn't move until someone comes along to collect the prisoners and find out where to put 'em. And if Micheal suggests in his bedroom please beat him upside the head for me." Wolfezth said, tired.
"Will do, mate!" Blake saluted, and then walked off to follow orders.
